(Editors Note: The following account was written by Daniel Diaz, a BREC member and former candidate for Pompano Beach City Commission.)

I am writing this tell all about my relationship with Rupert ‘Ditsworth’ Tarsey, because my loyalty to the party trumps my own political ambitions. I know this article will greatly hurt my chances of getting elected in the future to any Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC) position. This article will also cause me to make enemies in the local party, which I have tried very hard to avoid. However, for the sake of our party I feel it necessary to write this tell all article. In this article I will first share with you my values and my political allegiances so you know why I did what I did, next I will share with you how I met Rupert and became friendly with Rupert, then I will explain how I learned Rupert was plotting against Bob Sutton to overthrow him in a coup to later install himself as Chairman, and lastly I will explain how I entered into Rupert’s trust and inner circle and why I have finally come out to publicly denounce Rupert and his devious plots.

WHO I AM AND WHAT ARE MY VALUES.

Let me begin by sharing the order of importance of my values: first I am a Catholic, next I am a conservative, and last I am a Republican. Anyone who knows me can attest to my devotion to God and His Church, and the list of my conservative credentials is longer than most members of BREC, and my loyalty to party is second to none. When all else fails, if a Republican candidate doesn’t contradict the teachings of my faith, or the conservative ideology that ensures a free society, I fall in line with the party and support the Party candidate.

This tell all is not at all motivated by any of my political losses, because I have worked in politics for more than half my life as a political consultant, activist, and campaign employee for more than a few Republican candidates across the country. Therefore, I am a professional and do not take politics personally. Anyone who does should not be in the business of politics, because politics is business, it’s not personal. Everyone who knows me well can attest to this statement. Now let’s get into how I met Rupert.

MEETING RUPERT TARSEY AND BEFREINDING HIM

I first met Rupert Tarsey at several BREC meetings in 2016 before the General Election. As a good BREC member I introduced myself. In casual conversation I found out Rupert was a member of the Knights of Columbus (KofC) and instantly we became friendly, because we were both Republicans and Brother Knights. In the course of this initial friendship Rupert pledged his support to me over Dolly Rump for the BREC Elections back in December. He did this because Rupert claimed Dolly did nothing for Donald Trump, that she was lazy, disorganized, and that he shouldered the burden of the work by taking voter registrations to the Supervisor of Elections, because Dolly wouldn’t. As you all know I lost to Dolly and BREC elected a split board, which has caused great division within the Executive Board.

Since then Rupert and I had maintained a friendly relationship until Dolly decided to resign due to the division within the board amongst other things. I immediately threw in my hat to run for secretary. At the April meeting I asked Rupert to support me, and he did initially. A couple of days later he advised me that I couldn’t include his name on my list of endorsers, because he decided to run against me. He also offered me a proposition, he asked me to drop out of the race and if I did he promised that he would endorse me and include me into his administration after Bob was gone. I obviously turned the offer down. I later found out that Rupert decided to run, because Celeste Ellich, Vice-Chair of BREC, recruited him to run against me, a decision she now greatly regrets.

Back to my earlier point on how I don’t take anything personally in politics. Celeste would know all too well how I handle politics, because after I lost my election in May she came up to me to apologize at Duffy’s, and she was surprised to see I was happy. I told her, “Politics is a business, I don’t take it personally. Anyone who does shouldn’t be in politics. We are good.”

May was a busy month with both ministry and work deadlines looming. About two weeks after I threw in my hat to run for Secretary, I called Chairman Sutton and told him I was thinking of dropping out of the race. Chairman Sutton pleaded with me to stay in the race because he didn’t trust Rupert, and if Rupert won the election it would again tilt the board against him and Celeste, even though Celeste assured Bob that Rupert was on their side. I told Bob that I did not think Rupert was against him, but Bob thought otherwise. In loyalty to my Chairman and my party I stayed in the race. As you all know, I again lost the race for Secretary. At the time, I was actually relieved that I lost, because I would have more time to devote to other responsibilities.

The election was on Monday May 22, 2017, and that same weekend Florida KofC had their state convention. Since Rupert and I are both Grand Knights (equivalent of Chairman) of our councils, we had to go up as delegates for the convention. Since I had no animosity towards Rupert for losing, I asked him if he wanted to carpool together. I did this for two reasons: to get to know each other better, and to save gas money. He agreed and we drove up to Orlando Friday May 26, 2017 and spent three and a half hours chatting, spent the weekend together, then we drove back another three and half hours. I got to know Rupert well, and I also learned of his intent to overthrow Bob Sutton.

During the trip up to Orlando Rupert wanted to make sure he could gain my support when he decided to run for Chairman. To ensure my allegiance he offered me the position of secretary on his ticket when he decided to run for Chairman. At that time Rupert lead me to believe that he would wait until Chairman Sutton’s term ended. It wasn’t until after I agreed to come onto his ticket that he revealed his intent to get Bob to either resign or get him removed as Chairman of BREC. He did not explain how he would get this done, he just said he has secret plans in the works. When he explained to me his plot to overthrow Chairman Sutton, I instinctively recalled the advice of Sun Tzu, “Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer.” After the state convention I immediately contacted Chairman Sutton, and warned him to be careful with Rupert. I told him that Rupert had delusions of grandeur, and that he was plotting against him to overthrow him. I spent the next four months becoming a trusted friend, and member of Rupert’s inner circle.

RUPERTS INNER CIRCLE AND THE MASTERMIND BEHIND BREC COUP

Throughout the next four months, I was apprised of all of Rupert’s plots. We spoke multiple times a week, and at its peak daily for a while. He shared with me that his plan was to recruit hundreds of new members into BREC so he would have the votes to remove Chairman Sutton, and win the special election to replace him as Chairman. He primarily recruited members of the KofC, and I even helped him recruit several members at my new Catholic ministry. However, those new members from my Catholic ministry do not support Rupert.

Rupert was the mastermind behind Joe Kauffman’s motion to remove Chairman Sutton. In fact, the only two people who knew when the certified letter with the motion to remove Chairman Sutton would be delivered were Joe Kauffman and myself. I leaked this information to Tom Lauder at Red Broward. Tom Lauder has done an amazing job protecting me as a source. I leaked info to him during the four months I was in Rupert’s inner circle. The information that only Joe Kauffman and I were privy to somehow got to Chairman Sutton right before a board meeting. Chairman Sutton mentioned to Rupert that he heard there was a certified letter in the mail that would arrive the next day. Immediately Rupert accused me of leaking the info to Bob, and I denied it, because Tom Lauder assured me he told no one. I later found out by Chairman Sutton that someone in Joe Kauffman’s camp leaked this information to him. This was the first time Rupert began to suspect me of disloyalty, even though I was not the source of that leak.

In fact, every time Rupert suspected me of leaking info, it was always someone else within his inner circle. This paranoia caused Rupert to no longer trust me. To test my loyalty, he had one of the five people who send out emails for him send me a slightly different version of the attack piece against Ben Bennett, which included a one-line guilt by association ad hominem attack against me. He did this because he suspected me of forwarding his emails to Chairman Sutton and his allies. I texted him asking him why he sent out an email with my name in it, and he denied sending it out, and blamed it on one of the five people who send out his emails. During this phone conversation, on three different occasions he accused me of leaking info to Tom Lauder and Bob Sutton. It was this phone call that made me realize he no longer trusted me, and my usefulness was spent.

CONCLUSION: RUPERT CRAVES POWER

From the beginning I’ve tried to discourage Rupert from overthrowing Bob by trying to convince him to wait till his term was over. That trying to cause a coup would bring scandal upon BREC, because we haven’t had a Chairman serve out their entire term in years. Anytime I suggested he take a step back he would start a line of questioning that accused me of disloyalty, which ended with the question of whether I supported him, and of course to stay within his inner circle I would always say yes.

Rupert ‘Ditsworth’ Tarsey craves power within the party, he does not care how bad this situation has made our local party look in Broward, Florida, and to the entire world. He never had the best interests of party at heart, just his desire to become Chairman of BREC. He sees BREC as a stepping stone to run for Congress, and higher office. On several occasions he jokingly stated he wanted to be King of the World. I am not the only one he’s told this to. Rupert has delusions of grandeur believing he can do anything within the party and still win.

Now, especially after the story of his attempted murder case that was downgraded to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. BREC has become the laughing stock of the RNC. Democrats are waiting for Rupert to become Chairman to vilify the party. I know members of the Broward Democrats who are just waiting to see what happens this Wednesday before they launch an all-out attack against BREC, because of the potential of Rupert becoming Chairman.

Rupert Tarsey, in my opinion is the one who needs to be removed from his position as secretary of BREC, because of the scandal and childish games he has brought to our local REC. I urge everyone to support and retain Chairman Sutton at this Wednesday’s special meeting, because Chairman Sutton does not put his own selfish desires before the good of the party like Rupert ‘Distworth’ Tarsey has.

***UPDATE*** After the original story was published, REDBROWARD received the following message from Joe Kaufman:

“For the record, neither I nor anyone I am close to ever leaked any information about my letter or anything else to Chairman Sutton or anyone. I do not know why Mr. Diaz accused me of this, and I hope you correct this.”